Marrow and Olivine didn't gawk at this like I expected them to. Ivory's influence was so strong, no one in the room could speak. “How fast can we get to the palace?” she asked.

“Less than an hour, if we can find one of the passageways,” explained Marrow. “The only benefit from this situation is that we discovered the general area where one of these paths is located.”

“All right. We will need some time to discuss the strategy and gather resources⁠—"

The doctor found his voice somehow. “It will be days before we're prepared, especially if we're going to wait for Mercury to recover. Are you trying to suggest…?”

She climbed to her seat swinging in the branches, using both her space and power to control the room. “Today,” she said. “Today we will begin the operation to infiltrate the palace and save Willow Of- the-Mountains.”

Chapter Thirteen

Into the Palace

An overcast sky did not let the sun shine on the Meadow. We sat with the Topaz Clan in an intense semi-circle, allowing Ivory’s influence to fully take hold. My friends sat on either side of me, our shoulders touching, feeling the chasm of Willow’s absence.

Ivory led us through the plan, the power of Charm holding all of us together. “The first thing is finding the pathway. It's certain to be in this radius.” Her hands hovered over a map of the Deep Dark. A circle was drawn on the southeast side, near the hideout. “After that, we’ll split up. The palace is vast, but the layout of the base floor is simple.”

It took a full two hours to discuss the details of the strategy, and every second of it jabbed at my side. But Willow deserved more than an unprepared charge into enemy territory. His scream still echoed in my head.

“—Marrow will front the second party, and I can subdue any staff we might⁠—”

I interrupted her. “How do you plan to subdue them? I thought we weren’t going to hurt anyone.”

“Avoiding harm is still part of the success criteria.” She tapped a finger on either side of her head. “Charm affects brain chemistry. I can use it to make someone feel trust, but I can also make them tired. Don’t forget, if I ever wanted to hurt someone, I must be prepared to experience the same hurt myself. I need to be beside Marrow so he can hold me when I doze off. We only need them to snooze for thirty seconds so we can pass undetected.”

I sighed. “Okay, thank you for telling me that.”

As I expected, the plan relied on my power, and didn't account for every possibility. Despite this, Sharp believed it had a high chance of success, and that was enough for me.

Mercury regained consciousness after a while. His frustration with his injuries boiled over into anger as he learned he would no longer be participating in the coup. Not having his Tesser power was a loss, but the doctor insisted his injuries were too severe.

“Mom, this is a big risk,” he shouted from his makeshift sick bed, arms and legs wrapped with stiff, silver medical tape. “It’s a bad idea.”

“There's no getting around it,” she insisted, equipping her wrists with simple, elegant gauntlets. “If it was one of your friends, how long would you be willing to wait to rescue them?”

He held his tongue and simmered in the corner.

Dr. Gold-and-Silver emerged from his office with a variety of tools piled in a box, which he set in the middle of the room. Olivine’s round face shifted from serious to gleeful as she exclaimed, “I almost forgot! Gather round everyone!”

She handed each of us a pair of soft, white leather shoes, made from the hide of a sneaky fox native to the Northern Mountains. “This material will keep your footsteps inaudible. I also made compass and timepiece rings for anyone that needs one.” She reached deeper into the box and pulled out another ring with a complex pattern etched all around it. “It’s a bit on the small side, but this is a layout of the bottom floor of the God Tree Palace.”

She removed a long stretch of fabric made from iridescent tulle and gave it to me. “I worked half the night on this, and I’m sure glad I did. What do you think?”

The fabric felt like cool water on my skin, shimmering with the smallest shift of light. “It’s beautiful but… what is it?”

“I call it a gossamer rope. This type of material is tough enough to prevent plants from scratching the skin.” She gripped and pulled the fabric, but it did not give. “I made it translucent, so it looks like an inconspicuous garment. In essence, it’s a long, strong rope used to restrain someone (as well as a subtle fashion statement). I wish we would have had time to train with it, but it still might come in handy.”

“This is amazing! Thank you, Olivine!" I wrapped the gossamer rope around my arms and behind my neck, like the way Willow wrapped himself with his scarf. It made me glisten.

“That's wicked!” Piranha caressed the fabric, grazing it with sharp nails. “Diamond-fern silk is all over the Jungle! My scarf is made from the same!”

“I'm glad you like it,” Olivine smiled, playing with the beads at the end of her green hair, “but use it wisely.”

She didn't need to say it. The only thing I could think about was saving Willow.

In the final hour, the doctor brewed us a relaxation draught, one of two potions he had prepared. The second was a tea made of Wild Fruit to strengthen our connection to the energy of the Unseen. He handed out clay cups, steaming and fragrant.

The greenish brown liquid distorted my miserable reflection. “No offense, but aren’t we ready now? I don’t understand why we have to sit here for an hour.”

Ivory noted the time on her finger. “Because we want to enter when most of the nobles and staff of the palace dine together. We’ll still have to find our way around the usual guard, but we’ll run into fewer civilians.”

This detail eased my nerves more than the draught ever could. Ivory was thinking of everything to have the best chance of success. The potion filled my body with warmth, and my whirring thoughts became slow and subtle. It didn't make me tired, but restful and focused.

To whittle away the final minutes, my friends and I sat in a circle and played a few rounds of Willow's favorite card game. An unusual moment of peace, the temporary calm before we charged into the grim future.

The biggest flora in the world was in the center of the Deep Dark: The God Tree, a gargantuan castle for all the kings of the past, surrounded by a small palace town. The long reaching roots were large enough to be turned into apartments, stables, and other types of shelter used by the royals and palace community. In more peaceful times, people traveled from all over the continent to visit the shops and enjoy some dancing and fun, but the tension between clans and an aging king had robbed this culture from the world for over a decade now.

“The last few years have been pretty bleak in the palace town, so we won't see many people.” Ivory explained as we followed her along the forest floor, to the place we’d lost sight of the kidnapper. “Does this area look familiar?”

Marrow pointed a crooked finger at the three trees in front of us. “Yes. If I had to guess, I’d say the pathway is along the roots of one of those trees. Spread out and look for disturbed areas.”

The Ghost Trees shimmered with moving energy, communicating with each other in an ancient, secret language. In the end it was Piranha who found the door, having noticed a tree with unnatural symmetry. Olivine split the bark and revealed a descending staircase.

I was first, followed by Sharp, Piranha, and Teal. My friends’ heightened senses would allow us to detect enemies before we saw them, and I could use my power to hide. Our two missions, saving Willow and freeing Pyrite, required us to split into two parties. Teal would relay details to his twin, so Tungsten could lead the second party to the throne room undetected, while the first party continued to the prison hold for Willow.

I stole a glance at Piranha, who was gripping my right arm tightly. Their orange-fire eyes wavered, convincing me we would be successful. This resolve was written tenfold in Sharp’s intense expression. We descended, and the darkness thickened until it was absolute black, impenetrable.

“Whoa…I can’t see a thing,” Teal whispered from behind us, his thin, cold hand around my left wrist. “Do you have some sort of light? Maybe we should get one before we go further.”

“Don’t be silly, I can see just fine,” said Piranha. The only thing visible was the faint luminous orange of wide cat eyes.

“I can see too, if I cross over,” I said. My three companions released me and held on to the edges of the gossamer rope, so I didn’t waste my energy bringing them over. It didn't matter that my friends couldn't see me, so complete was the darkness, but it mattered that we stayed together.

The secret corridor had been sawed out long ago by sloppy hands, a straight shot to the center of the Dark. After five minutes, the darkness still hadn't let up.

Teal swung the rope in a lazy circle. “Tungsten said when we make it to the actual perimeter of the palace town, there will be lights along the way. This absolute darkness deters would-be intruders from proceeding further, because the initial instinct is to assume you're in a closed room with no outlet, a dead end.”

After an excruciating thirty minutes, the texture of the walls smoothed. I returned to the real dimension, where the darkness had lessened. We passed the dirt and roots and entered a hallway lined with wooden moldings carved with mushrooms and leaves. Dim bulbs filled the place with dusty brown light.

A crack of thunder shook our ears. Of all the nights for a storm…

Sharp took my place in the front. When path branched out in other directions, she checked her compass ring, stacked with the intricate map ring, and pointed straight forward. “We've been lucky not to run into anyone yet. Any updates from the other party?”

“Things are proceeding as planned,” Teal said, staring blankly. “When the lights become silver and the walls become white, we will be the main palace, in the southernmost wing. The prison chambers are in the west wing, but we should avoid the central palace hall on our way to find Willow. I've been in these cells, and with the likes of you two, we should be able to break him out all by ourselves. Ivory will wait for our signal, and if we succeed, she'll begin phase two.”